GE2025: Ong Ye Kung pays tribute to Lim Wee Kiak
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(From left) Health Minister Ong Ye Kung with Mr Gabriel Lam, Dr Lim Wee Kiak and Mr Ng Shi Xuan during Canberra Day at Canberra Park on April 13.
ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
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SINGAPORE - Health Minister Ong Ye Kung paid tribute to fellow MP for Sembawang GRC, Dr Lim Wee Kiak, on April 13, but stopped short of saying that Dr Lim would be retiring.
He was speaking to reporters at the constituency’s annual flagship event Canberra Day.
Mr Ong said Dr Lim kept returning as an adviser because he has a special attachment to Sembawang, having grown up in Nee Soon Kampung. And each time he returned, he did better than the last.
He cited the example of how, when he was a rookie MP dealing with new residents moving into Build-To-Order (BTO) flats, Dr Lim advised him to organise what was called “floor parties”.
These parties help new home owners understand “there is no such thing as a house without problems” and that the MP was there to help.
“It worked wonderfully, and also made me look very useful in the eyes of the residents... So, the idea was so good that it became a national initiative,” Mr Ong said.
Mr Ong, who helms the PAP team at Sembawang GRC, said Dr Lim had wanted to leave in 2020 but stayed because Mr Ong was leading the team there for the first time.
Mr Ong said he spoke to Dr Lim then but “did not persuade him”, yet Dr Lim agreed to run one more time.
“Both of us scored the same percentage down to two decimal places, so it was a bit like kindred spirit brothers,” he said.
Apart from Mr Ong and Dr Lim, the Sembawang team includes Mr Vikram Nair, Ms Poh Li San and Ms Mariam Jaafar.
Dr Lim, an ophthalmologist, first contested the 2006 General Election as part of a six-member PAP team for Sembawang GRC.
Led by then Minister for Health Khaw Boon Wan, the team won more than 76 per cent of the votes.
That same year, Dr Lim was appointed to the National Development and Environment as well as the Manpower government parliamentary committees (GPCs).
Three years later, in 2009, he was appointed to the Public Accounts Committee and also became the GPC chairman for transport.
In GE2011, Dr Lim contested as part of a five-member PAP team in Nee Soon GRC.
The team, led then by Minister for Law K. Shanmugam, won more than 58 per cent of the votes.
Dr Lim was appointed chairman of the Defence and Foreign Affairs GPCs in July 2011.
His Canberra ward returned to Sembawang GRC in 2015, making him part of a five-member PAP team led by Mr Khaw, who was then Minister for National Development and party chairman.
MP for Sembawang GRC, Dr Lim Wee Kiak, interacting with Sembawang residents during Canberra Day at Canberra Park on April 13.
ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
The team won more than 72 per cent of the votes.
Dr Lim was appointed to the Public Accounts Committee and made chairman of the Culture, Community and Youth GPC.
In the last GE in 2020, Dr Lim successfully defended his seat in Sembawang GRC, a five-member team led by Mr Ong, then Minister for Education.
The team defeated the National Solidarity Party with 67.29 per cent of the popular vote.
Introducing new faces Ng Shi Xuan, the director of a battery company, and Gabriel Lam, chief operating officer of moving company Shalom International Movers, as two second advisers in Dr Lim’s ward, Mr Ong said it made sense as the Canberra division is the area with the highest growth in residents and new BTO flats.
